Last November, satellite communications provider Globalstar announced it had received $1.1 billion from Apple to expand its constellation of satellites that serve iPhone owners with emergency text messaging. Now, it has emerged that Globalstar has received an order to build more than 50 communications satellites for this purpose.
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As PCMag reports, Canada’s MDA Space has received a $1.1 billion order from Globalstar to build the bulk of more than 50 low-orbit communications satellites that will operate in the provider’s constellation. This generation of communications satellites is designed for heavy-duty digital data traffic and mass production.
Globalstar currently has 58 communications satellites that operate in low Earth orbit. In 2022, Globalstar turned to MDA Space to build another batch of 17 such satellites. Apple has been partnering with Globalstar since 2022 and owns 20% of the shares of this satellite operator. Recently, it became known that T-Mobile is starting a large-scale beta test of text messaging services via the Starlink satellite system. It will be available to customers of this mobile operator on a commercial basis from July.